


Here Be Dragons

by FHC_Lynn



Series: Gravity [3]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Continuity What Continuity, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 21:18:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4074205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FHC_Lynn/pseuds/FHC_Lynn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Swoop likes shiny things. Sunstreaker is shiny. Grimlock is not stupid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here Be Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> I need funny. You get funny. I hope it's funny. Happy Hug Your Cat Day. Written for the Dreamwidth [tf_rare_pairing community](http://tf-rare-pairing.dreamwidth.org/) for the prompt: Sunstreaker/Swoop - Swoop likes shiny things.

The first time it happened, everyone got a really good laugh. Belly deep, half an hour long, and bouncing off the walls. All in all, a really good laugh for everyone. Well, everyone but Swoop and Sunstreaker got a good laugh.

Smokescreen had opened book on whether Grimlock or Sunstreaker would win the expected knock-down fight, but Ironhide had intervened before Sunstreaker went ballistic. Smokescreen had been less than pleased to give back all the wagered credit, even straight. Prowl had casually remarked about the state of the lavatories, and Smokescreen's recalcitrance evaporated.

The second time it happened, Ironhide had been too far away, and sadly for all involved Prowl had been working.

Fresh from a wash and wax after a meticulous detailing of his armor, Sunstreaker _glowed_ in the soft, comfortable lighting of the recreation hall. Unnoticed across the room, ostensibly listening to Hound tell old Cybertronian bedtime stories, the very young Dinobots huddled.

Except for Swoop. That mech's attention had zeroed in on Sunstreaker. The lovely, shiny Sunstreaker.

Both twins dropped into seats at Ratchet's table. Sideswipe had time to drape himself all over Perceptor seated next to Ratchet. Mirage would later swear there had been whispering in audials. Sunstreaker had cozily propped his pedes in Mirage's lap.

Swoop had quivered in his seat; Smokescreen threw his book open over a closed, secure comm line.

Swoop's brothers didn't notice him get up. Hound didn't seem to think anything of it. Ironhide was busy gossiping with Wheeljack on the other side of the room. And Prowl was off in his office.

The betting pool held silent witness as the giant mech walked, mesmerized, all the way to the glittering Sunstreaker. The poor warrior noticed just in time to look up. Swoop's shadow enveloped him. Scowling, the bright, freshly shined twin tried to straighten up and put his pedes down.

As a group, the Dinobots weren't built for speed. Or brains. Sunstreaker got halfway out of his chair in the sudden hush before Swoop could make his move.

Throwing his arms around the borderline psychotic frontline warrior, Swoop _squeezed_ Sunstreaker tightly to him. Chest to chest. Spark to spark.

Smokescreen reflected later that he should have opened a book on whether or not Sunstreaker could scream like a baby goat. Smokescreen fell over laughing himself sick, like nearly everyone else. Ironhide left Wheeljack with the later's mouth hanging open in shock. Ratchet began shouting at both wayward creation and cantankerous adoptee and levered his heavy frame around the table.

Sunstreaker called vicious retribution down on the giant's head while he writhed and kicked in Swoop's much stronger grip. Swoop _cuddled_ the pretty mech, happily crowing Primus-knew-what in Sunstreaker's audials. Ratchet tried to pry Sunstreaker loose from Swoop's grip. Ironhide's long strides got him to the scene just about the time Grimlock calmly decided it was time for him to intervene. Ratchet shouted Sunstreaker into quieting down and, between him and Ironhide, pried the unhappy Swoop's fingers loose.

That was when Grimlock finally lumbered up. Sunstreaker waited, seething until he had a clear path to Swoop, then launched himself at Swoop's head. Grimlock stopped Sunstreaker by the very simple expedient of putting his hand out. Sunstreaker rammed into it, chest first.

"Why you Daffodil kick him Swoop? Him _hug_ you." Sunstreaker might have been tall, but Grimlock was taller than even Optimus. Sunstreaker clearly thought better of trying to break Grimlock's face.

"My name is Sunstreaker," the Daffodil growled. "And he grabbed me!"

"That hug!" Grimlock yelled back.

"Well, he can ask me!" Sunstreaker shouted, rolling to the tips of his pedes. Which barely brought the top of his head to the bottom of Grimlock's chin.

"It's more polite, Grimlock, Swoop. Sun, calm down--" Ratchet tugged the fragged off yellow mech back. Ironhide just tried to hold Grimlock in place. Smokescreen, disappointed, ended the betting.

"Me Swoop hug him Sun again?"

"No," Sunstreaker snarled. Then he stomped off, mirror finish scuffed and ruined.

Swoop looked _so_ dejected.

The incident became gossip fodder for the next few months. Swoop continued to eye the bright and shiny Sunstreaker, but he obeyed Ratchet and Wheeljack's hastily explained concept of 'personal space'. Which kept things quiet. For a while. Sunstreaker didn't _like_ being ogled, but he didn't try to pick a fight again. Everyone stayed in their respective corners.

And then...

Smokescreen sat in the crowd watching the basketball in what the surviving crew had begun to call the courtyard. Grapple had enjoyed making the hoop structure to scale, and Wheeljack had loved making the ball.

It was good, sometimes, to remember they hadn't always been at war.

When the twins appeared, Smokescreen's attention zeroed in on them. Swoop and the rest of Dinobots had higher seats on the mountain's sides.

Prettied up for day leave on the town, both twins _sparkled_ even under the overcast sky. Sideswipe's cheerful red stood out against the backdrop of rust orange metal, rich brown earth, and bright green grass. He looked gorgeous and obviously knew it. He bowed mockingly to those in the crowd no longer watching Optimus get his aft handed to him by Ironhide at the Earth game.

Smokescreen never bothered to open a book on whether Sideswipe would have a bunk partner before the evening came. He'd bet now that the mech already had offers on his comm. Even scowling, Sunstreaker looked pretty enough beneath the grey skies that Prowl's interested, but so very mild, gaze had been drawn away from his post as referee. The black and white Praxian's wings canted high and wide, trembling in the up-and-down of _very_ interested laughter.

A few seconds later, the wind in the upper stratosphere did something perfectly ordinary. It moved the clouds. Newly revealed, this solar system's central body beamed down on the tableau.

All shined up with somewhere to go, Sunstreaker reflected back the sun's rays in thousands of ephemeral diamonds made of light.

Smokescreen felt his jaw drop. He saw Prowl's turn dark and thoughtful, but s single, piercing screech ended any contemplation. Smokescreen looked up at Swoop just in time to see the pterodactyl dive off the mountain directly for Sunstreaker. Fast as the golden mech was, he didn't beat powered flight.

Swoop crashed into him, knocking Sideswipe aside. The huge pterodactyl flopped awkwardly over the flailing mech now sunk into the dirt, and Smokescreen's seat was just close enough to hear Swoop this time. "Shiny brother, me Swoop hug, and you Sun smile now. Make you good day--"

And Smokescreen lost it.

Prowl abandoned his referee post, leaving Ironhide and Optimus both laughing as hard as everyone else in his wake. Grimlock thundered down the mountain. Swoop had somehow gotten his stiff, awkward wing panels under Sunstreaker's back while a growling Sideswipe tried to yank the pterodactyl off. And then Swoop headbutted Sideswipe with a spark-brightening trill.

Smokescreen cackled.

Auxiliary panels a-waving, Prowl arrived and began to speak quietly to Swoop. He put a hand on Sunstreaker's shoulder, stilling the mech's furious protests. Sideswipe hesitantly put a hand on Swoop's crest, stroking, and Swoop finally stopped moving. Smokescreen couldn't hear what the twins hissed back and forth over Swoop's head, but Prowl had gotten Sunstreaker free by the time Grimlock stomped up.

And everyone could hear Grimlock. "You Daffodil kick him Swoop again!"

Sunstreaker, in the process of getting up with Prowl's help, turned a vicious glare on Grimlock. "He grabbed me! And my name is Sunstreaker. Stop calling me Daffodil!"

"Him hug you. Him Ratchet say you brother." Grimlock loomed over the yellow mech with his gigantic fists on his wide hips.

Sideswipe patted Swoop's head and snickered. "You were the one that agreed to let Ratchet kinda adopt us, Sun. You had to figure him and Wheels would spawn eventually."

Swoop sat at their pedes, wings spread wide and beady optics hopeful. Sunstreaker snarled at Grimlock and leaned into Prowl's hands. Smokescreen wasn't the only mech watching anxiously. He had credit riding on this fight, and Sunstreaker actually letting anyone touch him had categorically been a bad sign in the past. Even Prowl, who could get away with nearly anything.

"Stop calling me Daffodil," Sunstreaker growled. He brushed at the dirt ground into his former shine.

"You Sun be good brother?" Grimlock asked pointedly. Contrary to popular belief, the Dinobots weren't really stupid. Naive and inexperienced, but not stupid.

The pair glared at each other. Sunstreaker's gaze dropped first, and his scowl darkened. More quietly than Smokescreen expected, Sunstreaker said, "He grabbed me."

"You Swoop stop grabbing. Now him Daffodil not shiny. Him Daffodil like being shiny," Grimlock said, looking down at the pterodactyl who hung his head. Grimlock went on, "And you Swoop like shiny."

"Me Swoop sorry. You Sun shiny. Want hug." Swoop looked up and waddled closer, wings up. The poor pterodactyl's long alt mode face became the picture of pitiful hope.

To Smokescreen's confusion, Sunstreaker glared at Prime over everyone else's head. That big mech spread the arm not holding the ball. Ironhide snickered beside Prime. To Smokescreen's everlasting shock, Sunstreaker shook Prowl's hand off and bent down to hug Swoop.

Grimlock hummed, then looked at Prowl. "When you Prowl be ready be Uncle?"


End file.
